Prince Philip Movement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prince Philip, 2008
Followers of the movement with images of Prince Philip

The Prince Philip Movement ( French Mouvement du prince Philip , English Prince Philip Movement ) is a cargo cult operated by the people of the village of Yaohnanen on the Vanuatu island of Tanna .

The cult worships Prince Philip , the prince consort of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain , as a deity.

History of movement

The origins of the Prince Philip Movement lie in the first meeting of the Melanesian population with European settlers, who as representatives of a more highly developed culture were said to have psychic powers (see also: Myth of Mansren ). The encounter with the settlers led to a mixture of old myths about fair-skinned nature spirits with the new experiences. The John Frum movement spread during the stationing of US soldiers on the island of Tanna during the Second World War . According to this cult, the American named "John Frum" is said to be the son of the mountain spirit Karapanemum who has returned to Tanna to lead his people into a better future.

In the late 1950s or early 1960s, based on the John Frum Movement, a second movement developed that focused on the British Prince Consort. The Yaohnans, who live in southern Tanna, believe that Prince Philip is actually the brother of John Frum. According to their myths, the son of the mountain spirit once left Tanna to marry a powerful woman on the other side of the sea. After contacts with the British colonial rulers, the Yaohnans came to the conclusion that this woman must be Elizabeth II, which is why they saw in Prince Philip the long-awaited spirit. This belief was reinforced in 1974 when the royal couple visited Vanuatu. Jack Naiva, the chief of the approximately 400 members of the Yaohnanen tribe, was one of the locals who greeted the royal yacht Britannia in dugouts and saw Prince Philip in his white naval uniform.

In 1978 the Resident Commissioner , the UK's highest representative in the New Hebrides Condominium , informed Prince Philip of the cult's existence and conveyed a request from the Yaohnans to send them a photo of the prince. Prince Philip accepted the request and sent a signed photograph and several clay pipes as gifts. As thanks the supporters of the Prince Philip Movement sent their God a traditional weapon, a Nal Nal - lobe , which is used for pig hunting. Prince Philip thanked him again in 1980 for this gift with a photograph of the gun in his hands. This photograph was made solely for the movement's supporters and was never officially published by Buckingham Palace . Another photo was sent to the Yaohnans in 2000.

Perception in Europe

This cult became known to a wider public around 2006 when various British newspapers reported on the Prince Philip movement. In the spring of 2007, five Tanna tribesmen were finally portrayed in a television documentary during their visit to Great Britain. In addition to their confrontation with the everyday western world, a meeting with Prince Philip, which the Melanesians eagerly awaited, was on the program of the visit. Indeed, apart from the television camera, Prince Philip met his supporters; new photos were taken on this occasion. The documentary Meet the Natives , produced by the British broadcaster Channel 4 , was broadcast in German-speaking countries in the summer of 2009 under the title Visit from the South Seas .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jane Alexander: The Body, Mind, Spirit Miscellany: The Ultimate Collection of Fascinations, Facts, Truths, and Insights . Duncan Baird Publishers, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-84483-837-0 , p. 31.
  2. ↑ According to the cultural geographer Joël Bonnemaison, the Duke of Edinburgh is even identical to John Frum, see The Tree and the Canoe , pp. 245f.
  3. ↑ a b c Richard Shears: Is Prince Philip a god? In: Daily Mail , June 3, 2006 (accessed March 25, 2010).
  4. ↑ Nick Squires: South Sea tribe prepares birthday feast for their favorite god, Prince Philip. In: The Daily Telegraph , February 19, 2007 (accessed March 25, 2010).
  5. ^ Guy Adams: Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain. In: The Independent , September 8, 2007 (accessed March 25, 2010).
  6. ↑ Angelika Wölke: Visit from the South Seas. In: Der Westen , June 3, 2009 (accessed March 25, 2010).

literature

  • Joël Bonnemaison: The Tree and the Canoe: History and Ethnogeography of Tanna . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1994, ISBN 0-8248-1525-4 .
  • GW Trompf: Cargo Cults and Millenarian Movements: Transoceanic comparisons of new religious movements . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1990, ISBN 3-11-012166-2 .

See also

Web links